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The Girl in White
Eberhard Schneider with the other survivors were compelled
to take training at the navy yard in some modern equipment
of arms, and this consumed two weeks of time, and long
weeks they were to him to be kept from the embrace of the
loved ones at home. This routine work he afterwards called
a patience test, as he did not know how long it would last.
Apparently this delay gave the citizens of Breslau time, to
arrange appropriate festivities with which to welcome the
naval heroes home. Even the relatives in Breslau were not
advised as to the exact date of the arrival, and for days the
railway station at which they were to be landed some
afternoon, was crowded by expectant friends, including one
certain young girl in white, carrying a fragrant bouquet of the
choicest flowers of her well cultivated garden. As day after
day of expectancy passed, the same faithful girl appeared
each day with a newly laundered dress and a freshly plucked
bouquet, watching the incoming train. Among the expectant
throng was no one more anxious then the "Girl in White."
After three days of patient waiting, when the wild wind
huzzahs that announced the arrival of the heroes had almost
spent its force, and the bolder ones had welcomed home
their respective heroes, her own, as he stepped from the
train, met the girl in white, with the freshest roses on her
cheeks and the sweetest flowers in her bouquet, a personal
tribute to her loved one. She shyly hung back, to have him
meet her at the edge of the crowd, and as the procession
moved on, the two took their places and hand in hand bowed
to the throng that walled the street on either side as the
triumphal heroes passed. Eberhard and his beloved
Stanislawa were united as one, for every great man there is
a great woman.
to take training at the navy yard in some modern equipment
of arms, and this consumed two weeks of time, and long
weeks they were to him to be kept from the embrace of the
loved ones at home. This routine work he afterwards called
a patience test, as he did not know how long it would last.
Apparently this delay gave the citizens of Breslau time, to
arrange appropriate festivities with which to welcome the
naval heroes home. Even the relatives in Breslau were not
advised as to the exact date of the arrival, and for days the
railway station at which they were to be landed some
afternoon, was crowded by expectant friends, including one
certain young girl in white, carrying a fragrant bouquet of the
choicest flowers of her well cultivated garden. As day after
day of expectancy passed, the same faithful girl appeared
each day with a newly laundered dress and a freshly plucked
bouquet, watching the incoming train. Among the expectant
throng was no one more anxious then the "Girl in White."
After three days of patient waiting, when the wild wind
huzzahs that announced the arrival of the heroes had almost
spent its force, and the bolder ones had welcomed home
their respective heroes, her own, as he stepped from the
train, met the girl in white, with the freshest roses on her
cheeks and the sweetest flowers in her bouquet, a personal
tribute to her loved one. She shyly hung back, to have him
meet her at the edge of the crowd, and as the procession
moved on, the two took their places and hand in hand bowed
to the throng that walled the street on either side as the
triumphal heroes passed. Eberhard and his beloved
Stanislawa were united as one, for every great man there is
a great woman.
